Jan Colley - In the Arms of the Rancher

Hawk surprised her by avoiding the Strip, driving to one of the older hotel casinos in town, one she had never been inside before. That is, old in comparison to the unbelievably expensive palaces forever under construction.

Kate liked it even better than the much more elaborate pleasure palaces with which Vegas abounded. For one thing, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the others.

“So,” Hawk said, “what do you want to do?”

Kate was quiet a moment, glancing around her. “I think I’ll wander around a bit—” she flashed a smile at him “—until one of the machines calls to me.”

“Fine,” he said. He paused before adding, “I think I’ll wander to a blackjack table. Suppose we synchronize our watches and meet right here in, say, an hour?”

Grinning, Kate looked at her wristwatch. “Right. If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you then.”

They had no sooner separated than Kate began to feel lonely. Silly, she chided herself, checking out the lines of machines as she strolled around.

In a bid to distract herself from thoughts of Hawk, she sat down at a machine at the end of a row. She spent several minutes studying the instructions on the three-coin machine before feeding a twenty into the money slot. She racked up eighty credits in the credit window.

Kate had played the machine for almost the full hour when she became aware that someone new had taken the machine beside her. She did not spare a glance at the person.

“Hello, Kate.” Jeff’s smooth voice gave her a start. “I saw you sitting here all alone and came to keep you company.”

Jeff, here? Kate could hardly believe it. This casino was not the kind he frequented; he preferred the glitzy new ones that drew all the celebrities. The thought that followed sent a chill down her spine.

Was he following her, stalking her?

Scared but determined not to reveal her fear to him, Kate turned a cold look on him. “I’m not alone. I have company, and even if I didn’t, I would never want yours.”

“Now, Kate, we both know you don’t—”

That was as far as she allowed him to go. “You know nothing, Jeff, but I’ll enlighten you.” She drew courage from the cool tones she had achieved. “If you aren’t gone from my sight within the next few seconds, I will begin screaming for security.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he said. “You forget I know you hate making a scene.”

“Perhaps,” she admitted, “but I’ll gladly make an exception in your case.” She made a show of glancing at her watch. “You have exactly two seconds to disappear.” She didn’t look away from her watch. “One…two…”

He was off the stool and moving away from her, swearing a blue streak. Shaken by the encounter, she drew a calming breath, and the minute he was out of her sight, she hit the pay-out button and walked away with five dollars more than she’d started with.

She was hurrying back to the place where she’d agreed to meet Hawk when she spotted him at a blackjack table. She hesitated a moment but then decided to approach him, certain Jeff wouldn’t try anything again so long as Hawk was near.

Coming up behind him, Kate laid a hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there. “Hi. I see you’re winning.” There were several stacks of chips in front of him.

“Yeah.” He turned to smile at her. “You ready to leave?”

“No hurry,” she said. “I’d like to watch awhile, if you don’t mind me standing in back of you as you play.”

“Not at all,” he said, managing to keep an eye on the play of cards at the same time. “I’m not superstitious. Fact is, I like you there.”

Feeling inordinately pleased and warmed by his comment, especially after that unpleasant encounter with Jeff, Kate lightly flexed her fingers on his shoulder. The warmth flowed stronger when he raised a hand to cover hers briefly, his fingers lacing with hers.

The feeling of his touch remained on her even as the evening continued. Would his touch bring such torrid dreams again? She hoped it would banish those nightmares that only Jeff could inspire.

The idea was to tire himself out enough to sleep. Hawk knew that was the only reason he found himself back at the poker tables until after two in the morning. As he had earlier in the evening, he won. But that wasn’t the purpose.

He didn’t even doze off, not until after four. Hell, he thought, prowling around the spacious room, popping the top off a can of light beer, he might as well have stayed at the poker tables. He stopped at the floor-to-ceiling window to stare at the glaringly bright lights along the Strip. On the street below, the traffic, both human and vehicular, was almost as heavy as in the afternoon or evening. He took a swig of the cold beer. Obviously there was more than one town in the country that never slept.

His thoughts swirled continuously, every one about Kate. Hawk sighed, “Kate.” He didn’t realize he had whispered her name aloud or finished off the beer. Shaking his head at his wandering mind, he tossed the can into the wastebasket.

He wanted to be with her so badly, he ached with the wanting, the raw need. His back teeth hurt from clenching them together. There were other women in Vegas; there had been plenty of them in the casino and the restaurant yesterday morning. Several of them had cast unmistakable looks of availability at him. He had ignored them.

Just any woman wouldn’t do. Hawk was always selective when it came to the females he spent time with, despite the fact that he so seldom left the ranch.

This time around was different. Hawk was coming to the reluctant conclusion that the only woman he wanted to spend his time with was Kate.

And Kate had man problems, dammit.

She appeared to resent the oily guy more than fear him…but one could never really know what another person was thinking, feeling. Vic had said Kate had thrown the creep out of her apartment for verbally abusing her. And last night he had been far from pleasant.

Hawk frowned. Was the jerk harassing her? Had he been harassing her since she dumped him? Hell, that was months ago now.

When Kate had joined him at the blackjack table earlier that night, she had seemed different than when they had separated, he to play the tables and she to play the slots. It had been nothing overt or obvious. She had been quieter and slightly more reserved, not at all the woman who had laughed so easily earlier.

The wheels in Hawk’s mind were rolling full speed. Had that creep approached her again between the time they parted and when she joined him at the blackjack table? Had she come to him for protection? Hmm, it was possible, and now that he thought about it, probable.

Confused by her sudden change in mood, he had slightly withdrawn. He had had such high hopes for a kiss, a real kiss, with her before she went into her apartment building.

Hope in one hand and spit in the other.

The old saying of his father’s slipped through his mind. Hawk rejected the very idea that he gave up hope. Sliding beneath the covers again, he thought he had better get some sleep if he wanted to be sharp enough to catch any slight change in her attitude, because he could see her tomorrow.

This time he was unconscious within minutes.

Kate entered Mr. Bender’s office with a heavy step that morning. The lawyer was older—close to sixty she judged—and he appeared to be the classic prototype of an old-fashioned gentleman.

She told him her problem. In turn, Mr. Bender had questions.

“Did he ever hit you, even the lightest slap?”

“No.” Kate shook her head. “But…I must admit there were times when he was the most angry, swearing…I began fearing he might.”